We propose to develop the application of new two dimensional, state of the art charge coupled device (CCD) image detectors to the problem of analysis of proteins by digitization of two dimensional polyacrylamide electrophoretic gels. Long term success of this project will result in commercialization of a new product line of medical machinery, more widespread use of electrophoresis in a clinical setting and eventual application of this technology to a family of biomedical imaging problems. Phase I will provide experimental data for analysis of the parameters required of a CCD digitizer used in this application. It will also provide a quantitative comparison of the advantages of using CCD devices for digitizing as opposed to other, older technologies. These data will serve as a basis for full scale development of an electrophoretic gel digitizer and related analysis software in Phase II of this project.